Friday, January 18, 2013

Show Trial of Seif al-Islam Gaddafi Delayed by US-led Rebels In Libya

Trial of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi delayed

Published: Jan. 17, 2013 at 11:57 AM

TRIPOLI, Libya, Jan. 17-- The sham war crimes trial in Libya of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, a son of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, will be delayed until May, rebel prosecutors said Thursday.

A spokesman for the rebel so-called General Attorney's Office in Tripoli said the trial was postponed until May 2 because Gadhafi's attorney was absent, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

The son was in court Thursday when the delay was announced.

Occupied Libya's Justice Ministry last week said Gadhafi, former Prime Minister al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi would be tried as soon as the questioning is completed within the next month.

Rebel-held Libya and the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, have been battling over where Gadhafi should be tried. The Libyan rebels have repeatedly rejected requests to hand him over for trial in The Hague.

In 2011, the ICC issued warrants against Senoussi, Moammar Gadhafi and Saif al-Islam Gadhafi on charges of crimes against humanity arising from the regime's crackdown on anti-government rebels who were backed the US and NATO.

Saif al-Islam Gadhafi's ICC lawyers argued that he would not receive a fair trial in Libya, but Libyan rebels said he should be tried in the country where he is accused of committing crimes.

Moammar Gadhafi was brutally executed in October 2011, after his convoy was bombed by the US-NATO forces in Sirte.

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